by Netflix is for movies and TV, and Game Pass is for games, right? Simple. I don’t expect to be able to read e-books through my Spotify subscription, any more than I would expect Hello Fresh to ship movies. Which is why I keep forgetting that Netflix already has a bunch of games available (96!) and that the streamer just announced that it has 80 more in development.
As spotted by EurogamerNetflix recently announced in a earnings conference call (pdf) The company is working on more than 80 new games, with plans to release one a month for… well, probably the next six and a half years. The question is whether they’re games we’ll want to play.
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While Netflix’s current collection undoubtedly contains some mediocre games, it also contains… some of the best games of all time? No, really. GTA Vice City And San Andreas are over there ! Hells! Dead cells! Kentucky Route Zero, The World of Goo, The Case of the Golden Idol! And one of my top five games of all time, Without beef. OK, the GTA Games are not the best versionsbut at least they cost nothing if you have a Netflix subscription.
I think the main confusion is how you actually play these games. I always assumed they would load through Netflix and I would play them in a slow stream on an app on my TV not designed for the task, so I never really bothered. But that’s not the case. These are all mobile games, so while you’ll find them in the Netflix app on your device, they install directly from the Google Play Store or iOS store and work like any other mobile game. Which means, I just realized, I have Oxenfree II, In the breachAnd Moonlight worker to play on my tablet now! Wasn’t I stupid?
I’m clearly not alone, as Netflix co-CEO Gregory K. Peters explained on the earnings call: While Netflix has exceeded some internal goals with its games, it’s still pretty modest. He said it’s worth noting that “engagement and its impact on our overall business at scale is still quite low.” As is “the level of investment in games relative to our overall content spend,” adding that “the job is to continue to grow that engagement to where it has a material impact on the business.”
In other words, games don’t make things happen, but he wants them to. Many of the 80 games he mentions seem to be spin-off projects, designed to accompany an upcoming series. Or, in the company’s jargon:
We’re refining our program to make the most of the 80 games we’re currently developing. One of the things that’s really working is connecting our members to games based on specific Netflix IPs that they love.
The focus here will be on “interactive narrative games,” which he describes as, perhaps to the chagrin of many developers, “easier to create.” These projects will be integrated into an app called Netflix Stories, which should benefit from greater visibility within the app, likely directing people who have watched the series to the associated game.
So yeah, while Netflix has certainly funded some great indie games over the past couple of years, it seems like the direction is changing somewhat. These monthly-release games will be tie-ins with Emily in ParisAnd Sunset SaleSo. Well, let’s not judge, they could be great?
Netflix is basing this all on “following user guidelines,” which, given the company’s terrible job of clearly communicating that it offered a bunch of fantastic games with no ads and no extra fees, makes me think this was a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s much more likely that it appealed to casual viewers looking for casual games, and all the credit goes to that and them. Playing a Strange things Match-3 is much more likely to a non-gaming audience than if they realized they could play Dead cells on their cell phone.
It’s still a great opportunity for independent developers, who can take on gigs while doing Wednesday dance game, or Bridgerton Cuts the Ropeand then use the revenues to pursue exciting projects. This may not simply be a continuation of the experience of funding excellent projects that has been one of the highlights of the last three years.
Yet, if nothing else, you’ve just been reminded that you don’t need to pay $25 for GTA San Andreas Definitive Edition on your tablet, if you use the link in your Netflix app. (It should be noted, however, that not all games are available on Android.)
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